Liverpool Ladies goalkeeper Danielle Gibbons received the Special Recognition award at the Player of the Years at Anfield on Friday night.

Twelve months ago the 23-year-old was told she would need to have a brain tumour removed after it had unexpectedly grown.

Gibbons found out about the non-cancerous tumour in January 2014 and in July of this year she had an operation to have it removed.

The Reds goalkeeper, who returned to action against Bristol Academy in October spoke about the past year at the Player of the Year awards.

She said: “I was made up to receive something that highlights the hard work that not just myself, but the medical team have put in to get me back playing. It was a very proud moment

“It has definitely been a rollercoaster with a lot of high and lows even the first half of the season was quite difficult, knowing no matter what I did in the first half of the season I was always going to stop and have the operation.

“Initially I tried to get it before the season, but due to the nature of the tumour and other prioritised operations that came before me I had to have it in the mid-season break.

“It was November 2014 I found out that I discovered I needed to have the tumour removed because it has grown unexpectedly.

“It is always difficult when you get news like that. Telling my parents and friends was difficult to begin with.

“There is a lot of positives that come out of it. You take things for granted usually that I appreciated more.

“As much as it seems like a disastrous thing to happen, there is a lot of good that can come out of it anyway.

“I like to think it was more of a positive than a negative.”

Liverpool FC Ladies in a huddle at the Player of the Year Awards

Gibbons spoke about the incredible support she received from the whole football family and highlighted the unity in the Liverpool dressing room.

“You can have a conversation with anyone in the team, everyone seems like a close friend,” Gibbons added.

“That is why I knew telling them would be even more difficult, we care about each other and you don’t want to upset your friends.

“I knew that they would have my back the whole way through.

“The thought of being back with them on the pitch was what got me through a lot of the times when it seemed like coming back playing again would be so far away.”

When Gibbons returned to action she was wearing a protective helmet, but has recently started playing without it and wants to no longer wear it, so she can forget everything that was holding her back.

She said: “I played a game for the development team the other day and didn’t wear it.

“I wore it more for my parents, so they could sleep at night.

“I had a whole in my skull which they plugged with fat and muscle.

“That was the reason I wore it and to make it easier psychologically for me getting back into it.

“I have decided not to wear it now because I want to forget everything that was holding me back and having that I was more aware of everything that had happened.

“Now it has gone, I want to forget about that and move on and deal with every training session and game.”